Hey Rhuarc amigo!
Rhuarc said:
As I have stated before, I think you should focus more on getting books out, than to find the perfect page count for your customers. It just won't help anyone if you decide that 100 pages is the best option, but it takes you 1 year to finish it instead of 2-3 months.
I know BUT if I am going with the 32 page format then I'd rather go with 32 pages of epic content that people would like to see, rather than stuff they are a bit "meh" about.
Also, many DMs will probably still use the devils in this example and reskin them to fit better into their campaigns. Good epic material is that rare on the market, that only very few will skip such a book I imagine; even if the theme doesn't fit at the moment.
I suppose. The Iron Tower of Dispater stuff does look like spanning more than 32 pages and I think that is me falling into the same trap as before where the content just 'organically' grows until it is 48, then 64 pages and so on.
I'll have a last look at it tonight, maybe I can get it to 32 by cutting some stuff. There were 3 golems in there and they were taking up 10 pages because of the Guardian (Minion) - Golem (Standard) - Sentinel (Elite) - Gargant (Solo) - Colossi (Mega-sized Super Solo) iterations.
The main space taker were the NINE Dukes of Dispater. All Solo monsters, probably 2 pages each, making 18 pages for those alone.
Then say 2 more for Dispater, 9 more for various devils, 1 for the Abomination and 1 for the Dragonspawn. then say 4-5 more pages for various things
and then the obligatory 4 pages for Credits/Contents/Encounter Level Table/Previews:
PAGES: 4 (basic) + 10 (golems) + 18 (dukes) + 9 (various devils) + 2 (Dispater) + 2 (Abom & Dragonspawn) + 4-5 (other stuff) = 50 pages. I mean I could probably cut that down to 48 total somehow. But its still WAY bigger than 32 pages.
I could probably even cut that into two and make TWO 32 page books, add the Mega-size rules into the first and the UNIT rules into the second (or vice versa given you would encounter the armies OUTSIDE the city).
I agree that an incrementally upping of the level seems like the best idea, so why don't you try it? This way you can add the more complex rules (like fighting armies, etc.) step by step.
Had a look at this last night. The Nosferatu stuff is the lowest level spread (closely followed by the Iron Tower of Dispater stuff).
So maybe Shadowfell/Nosferatu - Dispater/Hells - Asura/Elemental Chaos - Disir/Temporal. Although I don't really want to do another Vampire-centric book after the three Vampire Bestiary volumes.
I also don't think the Dispater stuff will work at a mere 32 pages.
Maybe:
A.
The Iron Hell (32 pages on the second layer of Hell, introducing Dispater's army, Generals and the UNIT rules with examples)
B.
The Iron Tower of Dispater (32 pages on Dis itself, its Dukes, Dispater, his defences including the MEGA-SIZE rules with examples)
...then I can bunch those together into a 64 page book.
thats sounding like a plan...
This sounds tricky, would be a cool idea indeed, but not sure how feasible it is trying to achieve this. Probably will take too much time as well...
I know, I'd probably spend 6 months planning the best approach to get it perfect rather than just working on it and getting it out in any order.